Apparatus and methods for manufacture and use of composite fibers in general are known. Many drawbacks exist with the known apparatus and methods.
In recent years, many industries including, but not limited to, the aerospace, automotive, marine, wind energy systems, furniture, telecommunications, transportation, residential construction, architectural applications, and fossil fuel exploration industries have increasingly demanded more inexpensive materials with better and/or more customizable material properties. These material properties may include, for example, strength, weight, elasticity, directional strength, geometrical capabilities, or other engineering design capabilities. Composite materials, such as fibers, have proven to be especially useful to manufacturers with material property requirements similar to those outlined above.
Several techniques, such as pultrusion, spray lay-up, vacuum bagging, resin transfer molding, and automated tape placement, for example, have been used to manufacture components using composite materials. However, these and other known techniques may be limited in their range of applicability because of limitations in at least one material property capability. For example, spray lay-up provides for speedy manufacture at a reasonable price, but may only be capable of incorporating short fibers into a manufactured component, which may limit design control over many mechanical material properties. Similarly, pultrusion manufacture is economical and may provide good control over material properties of a manufactured component, yet it is often limited by the component geometries that may be produced. These and other drawbacks exist.